


let them eat cake

by downthedarkpath



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Cute, Family Dynamic, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Happy, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Power Development, Relationship Study, Slice of Life, powers, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28973868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/downthedarkpath/pseuds/downthedarkpath
Summary: “You tried teleporting yet?” Techno asks.“Uh. No,” Ranboo says. He’s thought about it - he’s been thinking about it for a while. Really, he’s not sure why he hasn’t. Why he hasn’t even tried.“You want to?”
Relationships: Ranboo & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo & Technoblade, Ranboo & Technoblade & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & Phil Watson
Comments: 29
Kudos: 713





	let them eat cake

**Author's Note:**

> basically i heard techno say 'once i teach you how to use your powers' in ranboos stream and my brain worms caught onto it and would not let go. thus, we are here now.
> 
> hope u enjoy!

“G’morning, Phil.”

Ranboo looks up when Techno walks out - he and Phil have been stood waiting in the snow for him. Techno barely nods at him, like he can’t bear to look at him. “Good morning, Techno,” he says, offering an olive branch.

“Are you ready to go?” is all Techno says, and Ranboo can’t quite tell if it’s more to him or to Phil.

Phil answers for both of them. He holds his trident on one hand and his shield in his other, looking appropriately intimidating. Techno only needs to hold his sword, loose in his fist, and Ranboo feels nervous. “Been ready for a while now, Techno. Where are you planning to go?”

Techno closes the door behind him, slides his sword into the scabbard at his side. He almost trips down the stairs, but passes it off like he’s dancing. Phil laughs; Ranboo doesn’t.

“Follow me, Phil,” Techno declares. He looks at Ranboo, finally, “you got some sleep last night, Ranboo?”

He doesn’t know what to say. He nods. “Uh- yeah. Yeah! Loads of it. So much… sleep.”

He doesn’t mention that he can’t close his eyes - that he can’t sit alone in the dark for too long, that he can’t breathe in the silence. Phil gives him a pitying look.

“Good,” Techno says. He’s like a war general. “Let’s go, then. Phil, you coming with us?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Phil says, with a tight smile. He looks nervous. He looks more nervous than Ranboo feels, which is. Well, it’s odd. 

They don’t go far. About five hundred blocks from the house, far enough that Ranboo can only just about see the roof of it on the horizon. Techno stops at the edge of a river, dumps his sword and shield in the snow, and turns to Ranboo expectantly.

“So. What can you do, wonder boy?”

Ranboo falters. “Um. I’m not… really… sure yet?”

Techno makes a face. He can’t tell if it’s good or bad. “Well, what have you done so far?”

To his left, Phil unloads his inventory into the snow, setting up a chest and clearing a patch in the grass. He sits, watching them. Ranboo feels the weight of their eyes on him like a metric ton.

“I don’t like looking in people’s eyes,” he says, “and I can kind of pick up blocks now. I like up the blocks. Endermen like me. I think.”

“Show me,” Techno demands. He steps back, like Ranboo is dangerous, clasping his hands in front of him expectantly.

Ranboo looks from Techno to Phil and back again. He kneels in the snow, brushing some away until he can see the frozen grass beneath it. He touches it once, twice, digging his fingertips into the dirt until his palm is cold and muddy. Before long, he holds a patch of grass, and he passes it from hand to hand like he doesn’t know quite what to do with it.

“Huh,” Techno says. It’s all he says. Ranboo places the grass back down, in a different spot this time. 

He reaches out for another block, tearing it down until it appears in his inventory. Then another. And another. It does very little to calm his nerves, and Ranboo avoids looking at Techno at all. He doesn’t look at Phil, either, and he especially does not look at the swords they’ve stuck, hilt up, in the snow.

He’s intimidated. He feels foolish for admitting it; after all, he’s physically taller and stronger than both of them. But he’s weak when he handles his own weapon, and Techno is far more ruthless. Techno is a better combatant than he will ever be, and all Ranboo wants is to be enough for him. To be enough for both of them.

“What other blocks can you do it on?” Techno asks. Ranboo places the three grass patches he’d picked up back and stands up, brushing snow off of his armour until he can stand to attention in front of Techno.

“Any, I think,” he says. He’s not completely sure - he barely knows his own name on a good day, let alone the limitations of the powers he didn’t even know he had it. “I tried it on stone earlier. It worked.”

“You try it on any ores?”

“No,” Ranboo replies. He has to resist the urge to say, ‘sir,’ after it. That would be embarrassing. That would be really embarrassing.

Techno nods, slowly. He takes his helmet off so he can run a hand through his hair. He doesn’t put it back on. Instead, he turns to Phil, asks, “hey, you got silk touch on you?”

“Sure,” Phil says, “you want me to find some ores so you can test it out?”

Techno nods. He almost smiles too. Ranboo wonders what it would be like to have Techno look at him like that, if he would feel more or less intimidated. “Thanks, Phil.”

Phil doesn’t go far - he finds a small tunnel system not a hundred blocks out - but Ranboo still feels overwhelmingly isolated now. Him and Techno. Alone. In the middle of nowhere. It does nothing good for his nerves.

“You tried teleporting yet?” Techno asks. 

“Uh. No,” Ranboo says. He’s thought about it - he’s been thinking about it for a while. Really, he’s not sure why he hasn’t. Why he hasn’t even tried.

“You want to?”

His hands are shaking. Ranboo clenches his fists until he can feel the grains of dirt left in his skin. “Sure.”

“Well, listen man, I have no idea how you’re gonna do this,” Techno says. “So, you know. Take it away.”

Ranboo has no idea how he’s going to do this either. He digs his fingernails into his palms. Inhales once, twice. Thrice.

Techno clears his throat. “Ranboo?”

“Yeah. Yeah! I um. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” Ranboo admits. 

“Teleport,” Techno says, helpfully. “Try picturing your destination in your head. Imagine that you’re in that place, not the one your physical body is in. Picture it until you move, I guess.”

“You think that’ll work?”

“It’s the best I got.”

It’s more than Ranboo has. He sets his shoulders, swallows, glances at Techno before looking back to the snow in front of him. 

Eight blocks in front of him. He stares at it, stares at it until his eyes cross, until he can feel his feet in the snow there and not here, until he moves like he’s walking across to it but he doesn’t take a single step.

“Oh, my God.”

“Yeah,” Techno agrees.

Ranboo turns around, staring at the block he had been standing on. Then, he looks at the one he had moved to, furrowing his brow. “I didn’t think that would even work.”

“Neither did I,” Techno says, “I was just making stuff up. You think you could further?”

“I can try.”

Techno looks at him, like  _ go ahead. _ Ranboo breathes. He focuses on the chest Phil had placed earlier, pictures it until he could almost reach out and open it. Pictures himself next to it, right next to it.

He ends up on top of it, standing on the lid. Techno looks at him with an eyebrow raised.

“I didn’t mean to do that.”

“You weren’t aiming for the chest?”

Ranboo steps off of it. “I was aiming for next to the chest.”

“I guess we better hone that, then,” Techno says. “Can’t have you teleporting in the middle of a battle and landing one block out.”

Ranboo laughs. It isn’t funny. He feels even more afraid. “Of course not.”

“What have you two gotten up to?” Phil calls. He’s back; Ranboo feels a tiny bit of the tension in his lungs dissipate. “Was Ranboo standing on my chest?”

“No.”

“Nope.”

Ranboo tolerates looking at Techno to exchange a relieved glance with him.

Phil doesn’t look fooled. “Alright. Well, I found some coal and iron. You want to try pick those up?”

He isn’t sure. Techno agrees for him, “go ahead.” Phil places one of each in front of the chest, before moving back slightly.

Ranboo looks at the two blocks. He knows he’ll be able to pick them up already; he’s just not sure if he’s ready to see their reactions to it. He’s not sure if he even wants to.

“When you’re ready, Ranboo,” Techno says, and it’s about as much of an order that it could be. 

He reaches out, digging his fingernails into the stone until his fingerprints are black with coal. It hurts, almost. Only almost. Ranboo isn’t entirely sure how much of it is true pain, or only what he thinks should hurt.

Before long, he’s holding the unmined ore in his hand. Phil looks impressed. Techno does not. Ranboo doesn’t address them before turning to the iron.

“Ranboo, you don’t have to-”

He doesn’t listen to Phil - he keeps pulling at the iron ore until he holds that too. Something settles in his chest. His fists are red and raw, the skin broken on his knuckles and around his fingers until blood runs and pools in his palms. Ranboo drops the unbroken ores in front of Techno.

He’s tired now. His hands hurt. His entire body hurts (at least, he feels what he assumes to be pain, in each and every one of his molecules). Phil rushes over to him and takes his forearms, wipes the blood away from his hands until it dries on both of them.

“Okay,” Phil says. “I think we’re done for today. You need to go home, and rest. We’re not coming back out until your hands heal.”

“Phil,” Techno says, “come on, this is important. He can at least practice the teleportation. You never know when he might need it.”

“No, Techno.”

“Phil.”

“I said no,” Phil says. “You’re not too old to be grounded. If I find out you’re pushing him too far…”

“I can take care of myself,” Ranboo says.

“If I find out that you’re pushing yourself too far,” Phil corrects. He inhales heavily. Ranboo wonders if this is what it means to have someone care about him. “You don’t need to practice at the sacrifice of your wellbeing. You’ve managed this long without these powers. They can wait a few more days.”

Techno looks like he’s about to argue. Ranboo feels like he’s about to fall apart in the snow.

“Don’t argue with me,” Phil says, “look at him. He’s worn out already. He needs rest, Techno. He’s just a child.”

“So was I,” Techno says. Ranboo doesn’t think he should be listening to this.

“Then you should know better,” Phil says. “Come on, Ranboo. You did a great job today.”

“Where are we going?”

Phil looks at him. It’s the first time he’s looked Phil in the eyes in a while. “We’re going home.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! im not too sure on ranboo or technos characterisation yet but I enjoyed writing this and would love to know what you think!!! leave a comment (please)
> 
> come say hi on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ERR0RGEO)!
> 
> some awesome [art](https://twitter.com/ADHDenkii/status/1353677792475549696?s=20) of the final scene!


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